With the growing popularity of robotics in industry, there has been an increased need to reduce robot arm and wrist damage, and thereby minimize robot down-time, caused by undesired pressure exerted from external sources. In this regard, the robotics industry currently employs breakaway clutch devices, i.e. devices which interface with a robotic arm and robotic tooling to permit the robotic tooling to breakaway from sources of undesired pressure.
One presently known breakaway clutch device generally includes a housing which connects to a robot arm, and a mounting plate pivotally connected to the housing. The mounting plate, in turn, connects to robotic tooling, such as a robotic gripper apparatus. In normal operation of a robot, the mounting plate is maintained in a generally fixed relationship relative to the housing. Upon detection of an undesired pressure from an external source, the breakaway clutch device detects the pressure and advances a piston in a direction generally toward the pressure to cause the mounting plate to breakaway.
A disadvantage to this presently known breakaway device is that its construction provides for limited amounts of compliance to permit effective breakaway of the mounting plate. As used herein the term "compliance" refers generally to the distance that the mounting plate of the clutch device can travel when it yields to external pressure sources after having broken away. Further, the mounting plate is limited in its ability to rotate or orbit about a longitudinal axis of the clutch device in a direction generally away from the external pressure source. As a consequence of these disadvantages, often times this type of device may become jarred out of position and thereby require time-consuming reprogramming and retooling.